Meet the speakers in the War of the Words open-mic competition

Campaign and The Huffington Post will host future stars of the industry in the open-mic strand of War of the Words.

The fast-paced event will feature speakers aged 30 or under presenting ideas in four areas: creativity; planning; brands; and media.

In the open-mic section, 10 finalists were chosen, and asked to pitch an idea that can be expressed with a statement, starting with two words: "I believe..." and explore the idea in just 3 minutes.

The competition was open to agency talent of 25 or under, students and any madly hungry young people.

The finalists

Jonathan Barnes

Jonathan is a Hyper Island student currently working at Anomaly London.

He’s an avid traveller, sportsman, and wannabee entrepreneur. When he was 6 years old he had a hot air balloon accident.

Today he’ll attempt to introduce the notion of democracy in the workplace and challenge our current perception of working culture and freedom in the workplace.

He’s often confused with the famous footballer and rapper Jon Barnes but denies being a family relation.

Emma Brincat

Emma was born in Malta, but being an artist at heart, she moved to the UK with the intention of fulfilling her dream to become a fashion designer. Uncertain as to what to choose for her fourth A-level subject, she was introduced to Media Studies. And everything changed.

She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Advertising Management the new goal of becoming an Account Manager.

After graduating she was reminded of her love of ideas and decided to return to the creative world of adland at Albion. Noticing her talent they encouraged her to enter a D&AD competition, even though she was currently lacking a portfolio. To her astonishment, she was short-listed for a creative placement at Albion.

Emma joined SCA 2.0 on the art direction and ideapreneurship career path. She aspires to a shelf-full of D&AD pencils, as well as a Cannes Gold Lion. Emma also harbours a desire for improvisation comedy.

The title of Emma’s pitch is, I believe… female networking is targeting ahead and avoiding the bed.

Danny Feeney

Danny is 24. He’d like to think he is a creative and thoughtful person, and needs to be making things in order to be happy. He’s naturally curious of culture and people, and counts behavioural theory and data as interests.

He worked for a year as a chef in an awarded fine dining kitchen, and spent a year studying as a painter. He now works at BBH London with clients Audi and Waitrose.

Alongside art and cooking his passions are reading, writing and football (He is, and always will be, a committed and ever-optimistic Leicester fan).

The title of Danny’s pitch is, I believe… in the guy who finds the cheese.

Lea Galmiche

Lea’s adventure started under the endless sun of Nice, France. She travelled to Lyon and then Paris following her mission to change the world one brief at a time. She crossed the channel and completed her masters degree in brand strategy which led to a four month placement at the independent advertising agency, Inferno.

After impressing the team with her big picture planning approach, language skills and jazzy dress sense, Lea was offered a permanent role as a planner.

Lea is now a vital part of the global planning team at Inferno, and has worked on the global launch campaign for the Nokia with Windows phone and for clients including Dove Spa, Unilever and Festival Place.

Ella Hart

Ella is a 2011 graduate on her way to her first job in the advertising industry. She is interested in global trend forecasting and the evolution of lo-fi culture. She has worked in Amsterdam and London, with stints at 180 (Amsterdam), Persuasion communications, and most recently Fallon London.

Her long term ambitions are to work abroad and help produce daring creative work with stronger relevance to women’s lives. She wants to create a hybrid role for herself somewhere between creative, planning and production, but not before she explores art buying. Her Christmas wish list includes a Yakkay bike helmet and Lida Hujic’s new book; The First to Know.

The title of Ella’s pitch is, I believe… in a filmic future.

Tony Jiang

Tony is a recent graduate of the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business.

He has lived and studied in a number of countries, including China, Australia, Canada, U.S., Spain, and now the U.K.

He has interned at Leo Burnett in Toronto and moved to London to be in advertising.

He is editor of Risk Magazine.

The title of Tony’s pitch is, I believe… Fight Club is the greatest movie ever made.

Ciaran Murphy

Originally from Glasgow, Ciaran Murphy moved to London when he was 17 to seek his fortune. Unsurprisingly, since he studied Philosophy, at the age of 24 he is yet to find it.

He's had many jobs, including double glazing salesman, nightclub promoter, stand up comedian and internet marketer. He started off his advertising career in a DRTV agency, writing scripts for low budget TV ads.

He now works as a creative at Dentsu London. He loves drinking in Shoreditch, eating in good restaurants, and looking at mid-20th century art. He's currently writing his first novel.

Josh Okungbaiye

Josh has just graduated from the University of Loughborough, with a masters in Marketing and Management. He also has a BA (Hons) in American History, Literature and Culture Studies.

As an artist, painter and poet, Josh has had his art work featured in exhibitions in the Djanogly Art Gallery in Nottingham and Middleton Art Gallery and at college he was the founder and editor-in-chief of HEARD Magazine.

He has recently completed a marketing internship at The Financial Times and is on the hunt for a permanent position.

He also enjoys watching Mad Men and critiquing adverts.

The title of Josh’s pitch is, I believe… I have an idea so far ahead of its time that its parents haven't met yet.

Jamie Tolentino

Jamie has been interested in the marketing, PR and advertising sector since high school. She undertook her first digital marketing internship aged 17. She studied for a BSc Psychology at University College London (UCL), and was an active member of the student union council.

She interned at Punktilio (now the social arm of Essence Digital) and Quirk London while attending final year classes and writing her dissertation. Now, she's happily working as a junior engage strategist at Quirk London.

Although her core strengths are research insights and social media, she also has a keen interest in the wider digital strategy, analytics/data and general geekiness. If she were to turn back time, she would probably have taken a few programming courses on the side during university.

Since time cannot be reversed, she plans to learn some form of code in the near future and maybe become a planner someday. However, due to life's never ending opportunities, anything could happen.

The title of Jamie’s pitch is, I believe… that geek will be the norm, not the exception.

Dominic Weiss

Dom graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in Management. Following a dalliance in event marketing, Dom began his love affair with the world of advertising.

Before long he was on the books of adam & eve doing things like pinpointing exactly what it is that makes the Gorillaz so achingly cool for EMI, furthering the nations love-in with John Lewis and helping to turn around the fortunes of Save the Children. Currently an account exec but with high aspirations of more plannery things.